TV is dead, long live mobile! The latest research into video display advertising from AdColony has revealed that media buyers are putting a larger budget on mobile video campaigns than television. It seems that all those 55 inch TV 4K screens are being replaced with 5.5 inch pocket TVs, which has to be great news for web publishers with a mobile audience.
The noticeable shift to mobile-video for any was a year ago Facebook started pushing video heavily into our streams. In the same way that images replaced plain text around 5 years ago as the most popular way to communicate news and ideas, now video has replaced images.
All social media platforms are now designed to accommodate video posts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all thrive on shared videos. Facebook has recently introduce live streaming events, which are being used by news outlets and celebrities, as well as millions of average users. All of this has happened as technology companies push to win advertising budgets that would have traditionally been spend with TV.
However, what is most interesting is how media buyers are using mobile video – while the 30 video second format is still most popular, video is not always being used as a way to promote a product.
Brand engagement
According to AdColony’s Appiness Index, 37% of mobile video campaigns are designed to drive brand engagement, and 31% to develop brand awareness. However, mobile video is very much targeted towards Generation Z (teenagers and young adults) with 70% of media buyers agreeing that video works best for this demographic. In contrast, only 6% of videos are relevant to baby boomers.
Mobile video has only just taken over TV, with 51% of video ads being placed on mobile, however, investment in mobile video is growing rapidly and 68% of media buyers are planning to increase investment.
Mobile video problems
This all leads to the question – why are only half of media buyers focusing on mobile? There are three main hurdles for ad buyers:
First, 42% of planners say that they have been unable to find a tech partner to help manage their mobile video campaigns. Old school video advertisers need support to transition to mobile video, and many are simply finding that support too hard to find.
Second, 37% of ad buyers believe that ad blocking has become such a big issue that any investment in video will be wasted as people won’t see half their ads.
Finally, 27% of media buyers have simply not go around to making the transition from the big screen to small screens.
Although video is growing fast, social media is growing faster. 88% of ad planners say they will increase investment in social media this year, and 71% plan to spend more on general mobile advertising. What is interesting is that currently the increase in mobile is not denting radio, magazine and TV advertising spend – these channels remain flat, but are not in decline. However, over half of planners say they will be cutting back on newspaper advertising.
Mobile phones and tablets have opened up an entire new channel for advertising, and currently, traditional channels are largely unaffected. It could simply be that for the first time media buyers have found a way to reach teenagers. Traditionally, teenagers would spend less time watching television with parents at prime time and spend more time either out of the house or playing video games, which meant they were largely invisible to media buyers. The rapid growth of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat has opened up a whole new demographic, and they effectively have a captive audience – most teenagers are constantly glued to their mobiles!
What does this mean for publishers?
Publishers who have video content are in a great position to enjoy high CPMs from video ads. Fill is increasing all the time (especially with a well managed stack encompassing a number of partners), meaning that there is a huge opportunity here. Publishers who don’t yet have video should consider whether it is a format that might be able to work with. Although video content can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be. We have talked before about affordable ways to produce video content. Video ads don’t have to be contained to video content either. In-feed/outstream video can work brilliant on sites with an engaged audience even when the rest of the content is static.
If you would like help to capitalise on advertiser interest in video, get in contact today.
